Fall term courses

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>One of the matriculation forms asks us to provide which courses we think we’re qualified to take freshman year. As of now, I plan to major in ORFE (so I’m filling out a BSE form).</p>

<p>MAT 201 and MAT 203.
Which one would you recommend? I got a 5 on the BC exam, but I have absolutely no experience with multivariable calculus. It says 201 is applications, regular, while 203 is theory, advanced. I like that 203 is an advanced course, but as an engineer, would it be better to take 201?</p>

<p>I’m going to place out of Physics and Chem, so I’m thinking,</p>

<li>COS 126</li>
<li>MAT 201 or 203
3.
4.</li>
</ol>

<p>Which other courses should I take? Should I fulfill the distribution requirements?</p>

2

<p>I have the same issue. Some people have said that freshman year is the year to take fun classes, so I think this is the time to take random EM, EC, or HA classes. But don’t you have to take a science even if you place out? Don’t you just place into a more advanced class?</p>

3

<p>neither 201 or 203 is necessarily better for an engineer, take whichever one you like better. You can start in 203 and drop down if you feel like it. Neither of them assumes that you know anything about multivariable calc. You could try taking orf245 to get started on the orfe requirements, and then take a fun class. Engineers don’t have to fulfill all of the distribution requirements, so its easier to fill them just taking classes that you’re interested in.</p>

4

<p>I’m taking a freshman seminar + a classics course in addition to those relating to my potential major.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, I have the same dilemma. After looking through the student course guide, there were a lot of reviews saying how many students in the 203 class already had some multi experience. Nevertheless it might be worthwhile if it prepares you for upper level classes. For the other classes, I’m thinking about Cos 126 and Eco 100, both which seem to be moderate.</p>

6

<p>This is how I understood the distribution requirements for engineers: If I can place out of the SEAS requirements, then I the only ones I have to fulfill are the 4 out of 6 HA LA EC EM FL SA.</p>

7

<p>Did you receive your Student Course Guide already? For some reason I don’t have access to the Student Course Guide online.</p>

8

<p>I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: if you’re an engineer, don’t freak out about fulfilling all of your distribution and BSE requirements freshman year. Most of you will probably place out of Chem or some math, or maybe even physics, so take it easy in terms of skipping ahead. And if you decide to get some distribution requirements out of the way, take courses that will be interesting and fun. Let’s face it: MAT 201 can only be so interesting. Actually, I found COS 126 quite enjoyable, and I recommend it to my humanities friends looking for a QR (though it is quite time-consuming). In short, I don’t recommend taking a schedule like MAT 201, ORF 245, COS 126, PHY 104, and ECO 101. Yawn.</p>

9

<p>I highly recommend against taking 203. I took it and probably would have gotten a letter-grade better in 201 (I’m better at math than a friend who get a letter grade better in 201). There’s no reason to take a harder course if an easier one fits your requirements. (Same goes for PHY 103/105, unless you are considering a physics major there is really no need). </p>

<p>I really wish someone had told me this when I was choosing my freshman courses.</p>

10

<p>but would 203 be good for a prospective math major?</p>

11

<p>no, 203 is applied math, its for engineers/scientists, most prospective math majors take 215, some take 214 (two very very difficult courses that take lots of time…welcome to Princeton math)</p>

12

<p>I was going to be an ORFE major freshman year so I can give some insights. </p>

<p>Taking MAT 201 or 203 is not going to make a difference at all. 201 is easier, 203 is harder. You’ll have smarter classmates in 203. That’s about it. Pick the one you want to take. I like ec1234’s suggestion of taking 203 first and dropping down to 201 if it’s too hard. You also want to consider the professors, as I heard 203 had really crappy professors last fall term. </p>

<p>You should take ORF 245 as one of your courses, followed by ORF 307 spring semester. These are 2 of the 6 core classes for an ORFE major. That way, by the end of the year, you can have a good idea of what ORFE is going to be like, though I think 245 and 307 are supposed to be the more boring classes in the ORFE department. At least, I found both of them pretty boring. There’s a lot of people majoring in ORFE because of the money, which I don’t think is very good. Most freshman probably have no idea what majoring in ORFE will be like since it’s not stuff taught in high schools, so I think it’s a good idea to get a feel for ORFE and see if it’s the right major for you. Keep in mind that if you are bad at math, you probably aren’t going to like most of the ORF classes.</p>

<p>ORF 245 is pretty much AP Stats, so if you’ve taken that, the class is a joke. The workload was about ~2-3 hours a week for me, but it will depend on who is teaching it. </p>

<p>For the 4th/5th classes, pick some classes you are INTERESTED in taking that can fulfill distribution requirements. Quantitative classes are fine also if you like them. ECO 100 and ECO 101 may be good classes since it’s very useful for life in general. Freshman seminars may be good for you so go check them out and see if it’s your type of thing. Personally, I view them as kind of useless in terms of actually gaining useful knowledge…but that is just my bias. I believe a lot of people here really get to enjoy their freshman seminars, especially when they pick a topic they really like. </p>

<p>In case this helps, I took</p>

<p>ORF 245
COS 217
MAT 214
ECO 100
JPN 101</p>

<p>my fall freshman year. I’m really interested in Japanese, so I took that class and I think it was a great way to balance the classes I found boring. I believe if you take COS 126/MAT 203/ORF 245… you’ll have some trouble with 126 at first if you’ve never done any programming, but get used to it later so the class shouldn’t be that bad. You’ll probably find it interesting since most people do. 203 should be your most challenging class, and you probably won’t like it that much since I mean seriously… how many people get excited about learning multivariable calculus? I’m pretty sure there are very few people who actually find this class interesting…so it’ll probably be one of your boring classes. 245 won’t be too hard either, probably the easiest out of the 3. However, this class will also be pretty boring, but who knows maybe you will like statistics. So overall, the schedule is not bad at all in terms of rigor. Pick a 4th class you have an interest in and you’ll have 2 boring classes + 1 you like + 1 you probably will find interesting (COS 126). You can also pick a 5th, as engineers usually take 5 classes anyways. </p>

<p>As a final piece of advice, you should try to stay on the safe side your freshman year and not be stubborn when you need to drop down to 201 because 203 is too hard. The main goal is to get the grade you want in 201 or in 203. If you decide to start off with 203, after the first 2 or 3 weeks, go take a look at 203’s previous midterms and determine if you think you can do well on those kinds of problems. I’m pretty sure you can’t drop down to 201 after the midterm, so if you don’t do well on 203’s midterm, there’s a good chance your final grade isn’t going to be what you wanted. An A in 201 is going to be way better than an A- or B+ in 203…because it really doesn’t matter at all which one you take. </p>

<p>Not everyone coming to Princeton is going to be able to cruise through their 1st year and get the grades they want. So be alert and realize when some classes are just too hard for you. If that happens, you either drop or put a lot more work into the class. If you’re not willing to do either of the two, your final grade is going to suffer.</p>

<p>If you want any more info, let me know. Hope this stuff helped.</p>